The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-04-28

y
link with the old home. Serious student
years absorbed him. His powerful in
clination toward medicine had made
him a physician despite his fathers
protest.
He had scarce graduated when he
made abe acquaintance of a wealthy
Russian, i'll with inflammation of the
lungs This happened as he was about
to settle down in his native town with
a view of building up a practice there.
He had the good fortune to cure this
foreigner, who, grateful for his recov-
cry, and touched by the decided fond
ness of his half-grown son for the
young doctor. invited him to share
their southern travels as family ply
sician and German tutor. In this way
Arnim saw a great deal of the world.
Finally, at the solicitation of his new
| friends, he settled in Russia. Every
where he had taken with him the lace
handkerchief of the charming Hor-
tense. After the lapse of thirty years.
when, as busy, successful physician
he had lived n life far removed from
that youthful idyl, he still cherished
it as precious memento.
His heart remained strangely I'M
touched by love. Not that he had
striven against the charm of wom-
ans beauty or gone out of the
way of that spell old as creation
itself Still no woman had awak-
ened in him more than 4 passing inter-
est When he pOndered over this I'M
usual reality, Il have no time for love, ="
was the refrain of all his thoughts,
land without love there is no happiness
in marriage"
A woman had always presided over
his bachelor household. Ivan chung to
him with canine fidelity, and years
passed without his noting the swiftness
of their flight. Little by little there
had awakened in his heart longing
for his native land, for the quiet of that
quaint old town, for the rustic of Ger
man forests. These longings deepened
until they made him i'll. He learned
through correspondence that the vine
wreathed house stood vacant and was
for sale. He purchased it gladly, and
settled down within those four walls
to him the most beautiful possession in
the whole world.
The little place was unchanged. He
found his cousin already there. With the
sums he had sent her, she had arranged
every thing to his liking.
Marianne expressed some surprise at
sight of the tall cousin she had not met
for twelve years, and whom she had
imagined younger. VANS aspect filled
her with horror. She wanted him sub
mitted at once to the shears of the hair
dresser, but the shaggy Russian secuted
this idea, and his master only laughed
at it.
With strange sensibility the doctor
now wandered through his native town.
Whole streets had been laid out, mod
ern houses had risen, railway station
stood just outside the gates. But for
the vine-wreathed house, to which so
many memories chung. he would again
have wandered forth. Here a sweet
melancholy spell detained him.
The linden was yet standing
tree beneath whose shadow he had read
..Kathrine Won Hebron" with his
pupil. Roses and lilies, syringas and
carnations, whose perfumes had per-
vaded the air of university lecture
rooms and greeted him from the
orange gardens of Lorrento-all were
| here.
Every tree and rock on his own do
main was known to him; but outside he
felt himself stranger. Familiar faces
had vanished. The elderly people of
his boyhoOd were in their graves-the
young had usurped their places. A
Casino" had taken the place of the
nine-pin alley at the Red Lion. The
hills were dotted with the summer
villas of rich city people. Not far
from the vine-wreathed house stood
charming Swiss villa inhabited by
the family of a wealthy merchant of
the nearest seaport town.
To the great surprise of his house
keeper, the Russian doctor showed no
immediate inclination to resume his
practice. He declared that he must
confine his social obligations to the
receiving and returning of calls, leav-
ing dinner and evening parties and
afternoon coffees to Marianne The
writing of long-contemplated medi-
cal work would engross him for some
time to come. Until that was ended
he must abiure general society.
Marianne gave free vent to her dis
appointment. She had hoped for a
triumphal social career by her cousin S
side. She had also hoped that he
, would marry. In that event, why
should she not be the chosen one? "A
doctor is expected to marry" she said
to him. Il venture to predict that
your hour will come; that you will
some time fall head over ears in love :"
The doctor laughed. but Marianne
said to herself that her excellent man.
agement might hasten on that fateful
hour. The mirror she that night con-
suited in the privacy of her chamber
reflected a woman remarkably fresh
and youthful-looking for eight-and-
thirty.
Our Russian doctor had lived three
months in the yine-wreathed house.
He had heard the nightingales sing
their old-time songs to the roses; he
had seen these roses bloom and wither.